If small black bugs appear in the apartment, you need to inspect the entire room. These can be insect pests that are dangerous to humans. They eat and damage food, clothing, linens, carpets, upholstery, books and wooden surfaces. The bugs are multiplying rapidly. If measures to destroy them are not taken urgently, they fill the entire home.
Pest control measures include disposal of spoiled food, clothing and utensils, general cleaning, and treating the apartment with toxic compounds. Sometimes folk methods are enough, but if there are a large number of black bugs, you will need household chemicals. If you cannot expel the uninvited guests on your own, you need to seek help from specialists.
Where do bugs come from in an apartment?
When the owners notice that black beetles have appeared in the room, despite the fact that there is no disorder in the room and the cleaning was carried out on time, the question immediately arises where they could come from.
Ways of appearance of beetles in an apartment:
- cracks in walls, window frames, into which small insects can easily crawl;
- ventilation shafts and openings in which protective nets are not installed;
- windows and vents, open for ventilation, can become an “entrance door” through which flying insects fly into the apartment;
- through risers of sewer and water pipes;
- black beetles appear in apartments in the summer, clinging to people’s shoes or clothes, thus penetrating the living rooms and kitchen;
- from a neighboring basement or attic.
The water lover is big
Another interesting large black beetle is the water beetle.
The size of its body is 4 cm. The front legs have peculiar suction cups, and the rest are shaped like small oars. His body is streamlined. Despite all these adaptations, the insect does not float well on water. It makes its homes on the banks. The water lover is very leisurely, so he becomes food for small predators. In order to somehow protect himself from them, he spits a mixture with an unpleasant odor. The beetle flies better than it swims, and at the same time makes loud sounds from flapping its wings. This insect is nocturnal, so not everyone has seen it. The water lover's antennae perform an amazing function. With their help, the insect breathes air. The water lover feeds on algae, weak fry and dead insects. In order to get food, it often dives under water, and to breathe, it extends its antennae. This type of beetle is not a pest.
Photos and names of black beetles
You can determine exactly what the black beetle in the house is called by its appearance and size, as well as its location. They can settle both in food and in furniture, carpets or wooden structures and walls.
The most common black beetles, which sometimes settle in an apartment or private house, are beetles or flour beetles. They received their second name because they prefer to eat cereals and other bulk products.
In total, there are 3 types of Khrushchak:
- large beetles - differ in their length (up to 13 mm);
- small – have a size of up to 3.6 mm;
- black - distinguished by black color.
Black bugs in the apartment
In addition to the flour beetle, there are other types of small black bugs in the apartment:
- skin beetles - small black insects up to 4 mm in size that feed on fur and leather products, paper from books, indoor plants and food (flour, nuts, cereals, meat, etc.) - live in closets, old clothes, crevices of furniture; dangerous because they can carry infections and helminths;
- carpet beetles - they settle in beds and carpets, feeding on old peeling human skin, hair and crumbs; they can render things unusable and also cause allergies in some people;
- fleas are small jumping parasites that bite painfully and can carry infection; they often appear in homes where cats and dogs live.
Insect prevention measures
To prevent bugs from entering the house, you need to:
- Do not leave windows open without mosquito nets.
- Seal all cracks in the floor, baseboards, and near pipelines.
- Do not create large reserves of cereals and flour. Store them in a glass container with a tight-fitting lid.
- After bringing bulk products from the store, place them in the freezer for several hours.
Periodic checking of seeds, flour, and dried fruits for the presence of bugs will help to detect them in time and take measures to destroy them.
Big Khrushchak
According to the biological classification, Khrushchev beetles belong to the Darkling beetle family, numbering 11 species, of which only 3 are common in Russia and Moscow.
Khrushchak is a large black beetle up to 1.8 cm long, its body is flattened, and there are only 6 legs (3 pairs). The color of the body is black-brown and shiny, the abdomen has a reddish tint. Females lay 200 eggs. into the nest. The pest larva (popularly called a mealworm) is larger in size, up to 2.5 cm, and brownish-yellow in color. It feeds on grain, flour and bran. As the larva grows, it undergoes 4 molts.
The flour beetle chooses as habitats in the apartment those that are located near its favorite food. In nature, they prefer to live in tree hollows or rotten parts. The beetle's main diet consists of animal food (the corpses of small mammals and insects) and plant food.
Important!
When settling in an apartment, beetles look for food in the form of grain, flour, cereals or bran. They spoil food supplies, contaminating them with their excrement, skins from larvae and dead insects. In a short time, black bugs can multiply and infest all your kitchen cabinets and drawers.
Big and small Khrushchak
We remove the kravchik from our site
There are several effective ways to stop the black beetle from being a nuisance.
The first is the use of the inexpensive insecticide DDT. But treatment with this drug is not as safe as we would like, so many gardeners resort to the second method. This is the use of sunflower oil. You need to choose the most fragrant one on the market. It must be diluted in a ratio of 100 ml per one and a half liters of ordinary water. Pour into plastic bottles and screw on with a sports dispenser. Next, you will have to work hard to pour this effective product into each hole. The fact is that when the oil gets on an insect, it clogs its respiratory channels, and the black beetle dies. Crawfish crawling out of their burrows must be collected. Those carcasses that remain underground will be eaten by ants. Before each new injection, it is important to shake the bottle so that the oil does not clump into one drop. This process is really difficult, since there can be up to 400 minks in the garden. It is advisable that the neighbors in the country also carry out the procedure for eliminating black beetles, so that the black beetles do not return to you from their plots. But you can fence yourself off by digging glass sides (20 cm) around the perimeter of the garden or making grooves 30 cm wide and deep. In the fall, it is necessary to dig up the entire area, and preferably deeper, so that the young growth does not survive the frost. It is also worth remembering that most often the beetle settles in uncultivated areas where the soil is compacted.
Small Khrushchak
The small flour beetle has a brown or red body color and causes considerable damage to the food supply of a person in an apartment. It is widespread in Russia and Ukraine, where it often causes spoilage of grain in granaries, mills and other places where bulk products are stored.
The red-brown beetle is smaller in size (up to 3.6 mm), but it loves to settle in various food supplies in the apartment: flour, nuts, dried fruits and other plant fruits.
On a note!
Unlike the large Khrushchak, the small one has wings and is able to fly. The males of such a flying insect have an abdomen rounded at the end and covered with hairs. In females, the tip of the body is bare; they are capable of laying up to 1 thousand eggs.
The larva of the small beetle has a flat shape and a length of up to 7 mm, the body color is yellow-brown (light or dark shades), the head is flattened. The body is covered with hairs and ends with 2 spines. The pupa is painted light yellow, and its body is shiny and completely naked. The development cycle of the flying black beetle is 20-120 days, and the growth rate directly depends on the amount of food and living conditions.
What are the consequences of a bug bite
Like most bites, bug bites are simply reddish spots on the skin with a mark from the inserted proboscis. Most often, the bug leaves a peculiar series of such bites (3-7 pieces each). If you spot such a path on your body, you know that bedbugs are biting you!
If there is a large infection or a person is sensitive to its bites, an allergy may develop. This puts children at risk of developing anemia. The rashes from the bites are too profuse, and in some cases they can fester. This causes a lot of discomfort.
Bed bugs are clear carriers of many infectious diseases through their bites, but there are no recorded cases of transmission of hepatitis and HIV infection.
Black Khrushchak
The 3rd type of beetle has a darker, almost black body color, the size of which is up to 5.5 mm. Their body color is matte, the color varies from black to brown.
Unlike other species, small black beetles prefer to live only in heated rooms. By settling in the kitchens of people's houses and apartments, they are capable of ruining not only food products, but also glue, fabrics (knitwear and nylon) and other products. They are found much less frequently than their large and small counterparts. The larvae grow to a size of 12 mm.
Important!
However, once settled in an apartment, a colony of Khrushchak insects can cause a lot of harm. By feeding on the excrement of other pests (mice and rats), they can become carriers of infections and worms.
Black Khrushchak
Book louse
Also called the book hay eater. They have a long body and a large head. They love warmth and high humidity, so if they are detected, it is recommended to reduce the humidity in the room.
Book lice are common in nature - they live in bird nests and rodent burrows. Rarely found in homes - mainly in libraries and museums. These insects feed on plant and animal remains, as well as paste. In the old days they caused a lot of trouble because paste was used in the production of books. They are not interested in modern books, since synthetic glue has begun to be used. They are not dangerous to humans and animals.
Methods to combat bugs
If black beetles appear in the apartment, then first you should determine their type based on external signs.
Depending on the identification, you can use various control methods to help get rid of black beetles:
- Carpet beetles and carpet pests should be combated by treating carpets and furniture; first they must be wiped with a sponge soaked in a soap solution, and then with a vinegar solution; a day after treatment, carpets and furniture should be vacuumed well, and the contents of the bag should be thrown away, as there may be insect eggs in there;
- to destroy flour beetles, it is necessary to carefully sort through all reserves of bulk products (flour, cereals, sugar, etc.); if they are found, everything must be thrown away, because they are not suitable for consumption;
- inspect the contents of all cabinets for small black or red bugs, then make a solution of 1 tbsp. l. soda per 1 liter of water and treat all surfaces and shelves inside the cabinets, wash the dishes using detergents and pour boiling water over them;
- wash all surfaces in the kitchen with a solution of acetic acid or use boric acid powder, which should be rubbed into areas where parasites may live;
- treat the floor covering and baseboards with any aerosol containing an insecticide against insects (Dichlorvos, Combat, Raid, etc.);
- clothes should be boiled or washed in hot water (not lower than +60°C).
On a note!
The procedure for exterminating insects should be repeated 2 times a week for a month, since new generations of bugs will hatch from the laid eggs of insects, which also need to be destroyed.
If the measures taken do not help or there is no time to fight bugs in the apartment for a long time, then it is better to turn to professionals. There are companies that use special preparations to carry out disinfestation (extermination of pests) in any residential premises.
Fighting bugs in the house
Lice
Lice in your bed are rare. They spend their entire lives in the hairy part of the head. They are quite clumsy and slow, so any fall from their hair can be fatal for them. They constantly need blood, and once they fall down, it is no longer possible for them to climb to a food source.
As we have already said, they spend their entire lives on the head or pubic area of a person. There are also types of linen, but they are not so common now. They mainly affect homeless people and tramps who do not change or wash their clothes for a long time.
Lice bites are not as painful as those of fleas or bedbugs. But they can also cause a lot of discomfort with their itching.
These parasitic insects are removed with lice shampoos and sprays. At the same time, it is important to constantly comb them with a special fine-toothed comb.
Review
My daughter has very long thick hair. When she went to second grade, she accidentally caught lice from someone. When I remember how many times I took these parasites out of my head, it becomes scary. I probably bought different products five times, but in the end the lice shampoo helped. But I still had to part with my long hair. It's a pity, but what will you do? After that, apparently out of habit, I check her head almost every evening.
Elena, Arzamas
Bark beetles and other inhabitants of wooden houses
In addition to the above beetles that settle in apartments, there are also specific species that live in a wooden house. Most often, insects enter the house along with contaminated building materials and pose a great danger to all wooden structures and furniture. They are capable of not only destroying valuable property in a short time, but also turning all the walls and structures of a building into dust.
They differ in that their main food is wood:
- bark beetles - a large group of beetles (750 species), the size of the insect is 5-10 mm, in the forest bark beetles carry out sanitary work, destroying rotten trees, and in a wooden house they are considered pests, they gnaw long passages in the wood and destroy it, insect larvae are capable of in a few years “eat” the whole house;
- grinders are long, oblong small bugs, 2-10 mm in size, black or brown in color, they are coleopteran insects, dangerous for wooden structures, furniture, books and cardboard, they also feed on grain reserves, making characteristic ticking sounds; at the slightest danger they pretend to be dead, black beetles are active in the house at night and can only be identified by rustling and other sounds;
- longhorned beetles are larger pests (up to 35 mm in size) of black, brown or blue-green color, with large mustaches (10 times longer than the body), the larvae are large, up to 3 cm in size, capable of damaging a wooden frame in a private house, transforming structures to complete ruin in a relatively short period of time, they prefer to settle in coniferous wood (in partitions, floors, on the roof, etc.).
Bark beetles
Interesting!
All beetles that chew on wooden walls or furniture in the house make a characteristic sound, similar to the ticking of a mechanical watch. In the old days, such parasites were called “death clocks”, due to the fact that their activity often led to the collapse of wooden houses and the death of their inhabitants.
The development of beetles that feed on wood follows the same pattern. Females lay eggs in crevices, from which larvae hatch and gnaw into wood walls. They gnaw passages in it and spoil the appearance and structure of wooden walls and ceilings. After the larvae transform into pupae, adults crawl to the surface.
